Francis Reddy | NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Archives

Suzaku Studies Supernova ‘Crime Scene,’ Shows a Single White Dwarf to Blame

By Francis Reddy | NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center on Apr 8, 2015 Science/Education

Using archival data from the Japan-led Suzaku X-ray satellite, astronomers have determined the pre-explosion mass of a white dwarf star that blew up thousands of years ago. The measurement strongly suggests the explosion involved only a single white dwarf, ruling out a well-established alternative scenario involving a pair of merging white dwarfs. “Mounting evidence indicates […]

NASA's Swift Sizes Up Comet ISON

By Francis Reddy | NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center on Apr 2, 2013 Science/Education

Astronomers from the University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP) and Lowell Observatory have used NASA's Swift satellite to check out comet C/2012 S1 (ISON), which may become one of the most dazzling in decades when it rounds the sun later this year.